Of course when Queen Riri announced the launch of her beauty brand, all sensible people dropped everything they were doing to take a second. I mean her announcement was enough to excite all of her stans, but being the outstanding person she is, she accompanied her announcement of the launch with a jaw-dropping video. This minute long video consisted of women of all different skin colors, races, backgrounds, you name it. What did they all have in common? They were irrevocably and fiercely beautiful. Being a women of color and a makeup enthusiast, it’s easy to notice that many popular high-end and low-end brands do not keep the different shades of women in mind when creating makeup products. No, this is not new, women of color have been marginalized for most of history. But with something like makeup that is universal, it’s astounding that this is still a problem. However, Rihanna definitely made it a point to change that and she successfully did!
She announced that she would be dropping 40 foundation shades. Let me repeat that in case you didn’t hear me, FOURTY. For those of you who don’t know much about makeup, 40 foundation shades is more than usual. Usually brands launch around 20 colors, which obviously does not encompass all skin tones. More importantly, she not only included a wide range of shades but of undertones too! If you guys don’t know about undertones, do yourself a favor and find out. Knowing your skin undertone is crucial when getting a perfect foundation match. Most brands usually don’t even try to provide the right undertone for shades. When finding the perfect match for foundation, it has to be the right shade AND undertone. The 40 shades included a variety of shades for darker skin tones and albino customers, two demographics that are usually forgotten in the makeup industry. Rihanna meant it when she said she was including everyone.
So not only did Rihanna receive a huge amount of enthusiasm for her launch, but she met and then exceeded all the expectations. Which, to be honest, is not a surprise since it is Rihanna. Let me just hit with you the facts if you’re for whatever reason still doubtful. Rihanna released 90 products in 17 countries at 1600 stores. She earned $72 million in ONE month. Her products have not sold out once online, she back stocked enough for two whole years. She didn’t even have to make her products limited. Her brand’s EMV growth rose above all makeup brands except for MAC (which makes sense, because MAC is the classic of makeup), but yes, above Too Faced, Urban Decay, Kylie Cosmetics, etc. And let me remind you again that she accomplished all of these records in a single month. You can pick your jaw up from the floor now.
Of course, we all asked ourselves the question. Do the products live up to the hype?? I mean… numbers do not lie, but still I bought the foundation, swatched the cream and powder highlights, and tested the lipgloss to make sure for myself. Let’s start with the most anticipated product: the foundation. I’ll preface this by saying— do NOT play yourself. This is not a foundation you can just eyeball online and hope for the best. Save yourself time, money, and energy and walk into your closest Sephora and take the time to match yourself appropriately. Unfortunately, when I went into Sephora in search for my perfect match, not all of the shades and tones were available. I played myself and chose a foundation that I thought was a perfect fit without playing with the other shades and tones. I should’ve waited because a week later I went to return the foundation because I was dumb and impatient, so learn from this and don’t be like me! In fact, I recommend that you ask a Sephora worker to give you samples of the top three shades that you think fit you best so you can test them out at home. Then, from there, you can make the best decision. Okay, so that’s my shpiel on color-matching, please be smarter than me and play with the different options.
Now, onto quality. Rihanna advertised this foundation as a “Pro Filt’r Soft Matte, Longwearing with buildable, medium to full coverage, in a boundary-breaking range of 40 shades”. This foundation definitely did everything it says it will do. Even though I didn’t have the right foundation shade, I wore it for a couple of days and the quality was exceptional. I have very oily skin and unfortunately this foundation didn’t soak up all my oiliness (not that I expected it to) and I still had to blot twice a day, but only twice a day is still awesome! So regardless, it did produce a matte effect which I’m sure many people, who don’t produce an abnormal amount of oil as I do, will love. It’s definitely long wearing and will last you the whole day. The only qualm I had with it was the coverage, but only because I’m the type of girl that likes to do a full beat, so I usually prefer full coverage. This foundation isn’t full coverage nor does it claim to be; it’s definitely medium coverage and very buildable. I did have to put more than just one layer one to achieve my ideal coverage, so for my girls who like that layer, you’ll notice that this isn’t as full as other products. HOWEVER, it is definitely perfect for day-to-day wear and you don’t mind a lighter product. mean given the fact that Rihanna is known for her natural and effortless beauty, it makes sense that she would have a foundation more centralized on that natural type of look.
As for the other products, I didn’t really find one that I was absolutely head over heels with, but that’s not to say that they are, by any means, boring or ordinary. The cream highlighters and the Killiwatts (powder highlighters) were suuuper pigmented and there were definitely colors for everyone. Trophywife was the most anticipated highlighter and while the color was as astounding as it looks in pictures and videos, when I swatched it, there was a lot of fall out which was kind of annoying, but still a very unique product which is hard to say for many products nowadays. As for the lipgloss, it’s bomb and makes your lips look juicy and full but I wouldn’t say its the holy grail of all lip glosses. So basically, my final takeaway is: the foundation is definitely worth getting (especially after putting in work to find your perfect fit), embrace your inner Riri with the other dope products especially since she came out with her holiday collection already, and when Rihanna says “made for you”, you better believe it. So now you know, ladies, and not to throw shade or anything (lowkey throwing shade though), you can kiss your Kylie Cosmetics goodbye!